Automatic gas lighter and extinguisher



V. FORTI. AUTOMATIC GAS LIGHTER AND EXTlNGUISHER- APPLICATION FILED DEC. 1. I920.

Patented Nov. 1 1921.

4 SHEETS-SHEET I.

:V.FORTI. AUTOMATIC GAS LIGHTER AND EXTINGUISHER. APPLICATION FILED DEC- I920.

Patented Nov. 1, 1921.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 2- V. FORTI.

AUTOMATIC GAS LIGHTER AND EXTINGUISHER.

APPLICATION FILED 020.1, 1920.

1,395,567. Patented Nov. 1 1921. I 4 SHEET$-SHEET 3.

6 F R9"- 5 ly Lg) V. FORTI.

AUTOMATIC GAS UGHTER AND EXTl NGUISHER. APPLICATION FILED 050.1, 1920.

1,395,567. Patented Nov. 1, 1921.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

UNITED STATES VICTOR FORTI, OF PARIS, FRANCE.

AUTOMATIC GAS LIGHTER AND EXTINGUISHER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 1, 1921.

Application filed December 1, 1920. Serial No. 427,593.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, VICTOR Fomrn-citizen of the Republic of France, residing in Paris, France, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Automatic Gas Lighters and Extinguishers (for which I have filed application in France, November 25, 1919) and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others closing the inlet of gas to the burners, but

which effects the engagement of an actuating barrel, this latter providing for the opening and closing of passages leading to the permanent and temporaryburners and also to the lighting tube, and also effecting the rotationof an abrasive wheel which produces the lighting spark.

The present invention has for its object the construction of an improved apparatus based upon the same principles as those of the previous patent, and chiefly applicable to lighting fixtures supplied by gas at low pressure.

In this apparatus, the clockwork device effects the release of an actuating barrel at a predetermined time, for instance 6 p. m., which barrel causes the opening of the valves situated in the passages leading to the permanent and temporary gasburners and to the lighting tube, the valve of this latter tube closing, when the lighting has been produced by the rotation of an abrasive wheel against a piece of ferrocerium. At this time the actuating barrel is stopped and only recommenc'es operation when it is again released by said clockwork, at 12 p. m., for instance, whereupon 1t extinguishes the temporary gas burner. The barrel is again stopped and i then only set again in motion by the clockwork at 6 am., for instance, to extinguish the permanent burner.

The improved apparatus is represented in' the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 is a front view of the apparatus which is disposed at the lower part of the lamp fixture containing the gas burners.

Fig. 2 is a top view of the same, with the upper plate removed.

Fig. 3 is a side view of the same.

Fig. 4 is a plan view of the gas valve operating mechanism and the actuating device for the milled wheel which produces the lighting.

Fig. 5 is a front view of the gas valve box.

Fig. 6 is a side view of the same.

Fig. 7 is a front view of said valve box, with the levers and the closing diaphragm removed.

Fig. 8 is a horizontal section of the same.

Fig. 9 shows the lighting tube and the diffusing device.

Fig. 10 represents the disposition of the milled or abrasive wheel for the lighting.

' Fig. 11 is a plan view of the same.

Fig. 12 is a longitudinal section of the tube carrying the ferro-cerium piece having friction contact with said milled wheel. Fig. 13 is an elevation showing the special arrangement of the gearing operated by the actuating barrel.

Figs. 14 and 15 are respectively front and rear views of the time dial provided with its pointers for effecting the release of the actuating barrel.

Figs. 16 and 17 are front and side elevations respectively of means for facilitating the setting of the dial.

Fig. 18 shows a modification of the lighting tubes.

The apparatus comprises a clockwork movement 1 actuating a dial 7 6 which makes one revolution per 24 hours and is provided with two movable pointers whose position can be varied with reference to the divisions of the dial and also with a stationary pointer whose disposition and operation will be further set forth. The said clockwork movement is employed to release at any desired moment an actuating barrel 2 which antomatically carries out all required movements for the proper admission of gas to the lighting device as well as to the permanent gas burner and to the temporary gas burner; a plurality of temporary burners,

'portion3; the barrel 2which is disposed in the rear may be wound up by means of the square portion 4 which is disposed on the same side of'the apparatus as the part 3, and terminates in a shaft 5 carrying a bevel gear 5 engaging a second bevel gear 6 (Fig. 3) whose base is constituted as a spur gear 7 engaging a pinion 8 secured to the shaft of the spring employed for winding up the barrel2. The barrel 2, which in the eXample herein represented is disposed to make one revolution in four days, is provided with a gear wheel '9 which actuates a flywheel ofspecial form 10 by means of the gear wheels 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 1'7, 18 and 19, this latter gear wheel 19 being secured to the flywheel 10. These gear wheels rotate freely about stationary shafts such as20, 21 and, 22 (F ig. 2), whereof the first'carrice the gears 11 and. 12 which rest upon a shoulder, the second 21 carrying-upon a large shoulder the connected gears 17 and 18; and above these latter and upon a sec- 0nd shoulder the (Fig. 13

The third shaft 22 carries upon a large shouldersituated at the lower part,'the flywheel 10 and the gear wheel 19 which is secured. thereto, and upon a second shoulder disposed above the same, the gear wheels '15 and 16. whichare connected together.

The gearwheel- 11 which engages the toothed rim 9 of the barrel 2 is connected with a disk 23 provided with three notches 24, 25., 26 which correspond respectively to the lighting of the permanent and temporary burners, the extinguishing of the temporary burners and the extinguishing of all the burners. One or the other of said notches has engaging therein the end of a lever 27 carried upon a pivoted shaft 28 which is submitted to the action of a spring 2 9 the effect whereof tends to engage the end ofsaid lever within anyone of said notches 24, 25, 26. The shaft 28 carries a second lever 30 the end whereof is provided with a double pin 31 whose lower part is employed to arrest the rotation of the flywheel 10 when an operation has been completed, the upper part of said pin 31 being actuated at the required moment bya bent'lever 32 mounted on the pivoted shaft gear wheels 13 and 14 upon the full portion of the disk 23, thus 7 insuring the proper position of the pin 31 with reference to the flywheel 10,'until the end of the lever 27 shall have'engaged the following notch of disk 23. When theend of the lever 27 bears upon a full portion of the disk 23, the bent lever 32 now assumes the inoperative position under the action of a return spring 36. The shaft 33 of the lever 32 is connected to a bent member whose arm 37 is actuated by a double-armed lever 38 having successively acting thereupon; the pointers carried upon said graduated dial which is rotated by the clockwork movement '1.

The barrel 2 is provided upon the periphery thereof with the toothed sectors 39 each of which is followed by a stop piece 40. The sectors are employed towind'up the actuating spring 41 of the milled lighting wheel 42. The teeth 40 engage a stud 43 whereby said spring is maintained inthe wound rip position until the gear wheel 44 mounted on the shaft 45 of said milled wheel (Fig. 10) is no longer engaged with the sector which actuated the same. rapid return of said milled wheel to the inoperative position whereby the lighting spark is produced by the frictio'n'of, said wheel. upon a ferro-cerium piece 46, is limitedby a heart shaped member 47 which engages thestationary pin .48. V v

The ferro-cerium piece 46 is held in a split member 47 forming'a clamp holder (Fig. 12). said member being secured to a piston 48 having connected therewith the end of a thrust spring 49 which' is disposed with in atube 50, the other end of said spring being secured tothe pressure adjustment screw 51. By this disposition, the simple unscrewing of the screw 51 will permit the removal of said screw together with the spring and holder in a single piece.

7 The actuating barrel 2 carries the projections 52 for controlling the valves for gas admission to the lighting tube and the temporary burner, as well as the studs 53 controlling the valve for gas admission to the permanent burner; In the example herein represented, the toothed sectors 39, the projections 52 and the ;studsi53 are each four in number, the barrel beingsupposed to make a 'co'mplete revolution in four days.

The gas is distributed by means of a valve-box 54' which is shown separately in he Y Figs. 5 to 8; it is provided with three orifices 55, 56, 57 which are fed by the passage 58, the orifice supplying the lighting passage 59, the orifice 56 the passage 60 for the temporary burner, and the orifice 57 the passage 61 for the permanent burner. The seats of said orifices 55, 56, 57 may be covered by a rubber diaphragm 62 in the form of a band which surrounds said valve-box and is clamped in place by a plate 63 secured by screws, these latter being situated outwardly of the edges of said diaphragm. The valve seats which are normally held closed may be opened by means of the ball-shaped members 64 which are respectively connected with the bent actuating. levers, 65, 66, 67 (Figs. 2, 4, 5, 6 and 8) whereof the first two are controlled by the projections 52 while the third is controlled by the studs 53. lVhen said levers are out of contact with said projections and studs, the diaphragm is held down upon the valve seats by return springs 68, but when any one of said levers is caused to pivot about by reason of the contact thereof with said projections or studs, the ball 64 is no longer pressed upon the portion of the diaphragm corresponding to the given orifice, and this portion becomes raised and affords access of the gas through the desired passage either to the lighting tube 59 through the passage 69, to the tube 60 of the temporary burner through the passage 70 or to the tube 61 of the permanent burner through the passage'71.

The lighting tube 59 opens into a chimney 72 which rises to a point adjacent the burners and wherein the gas is caused to expand. Below the chimney 72 and surrounding the lighting tube 59 is disposed a diffusion tube 73 having therein an aperture 74 situated opposite the gas lighting milled wheel 42. In the annular space between the tube 59 and the tube 73 is caused to flow a small quantity of gas obtained from an ofltake orifice 75 in the tube 59. It follows from this disposition that a mixture of gas and air will be formed in said annular space whereby the ignition by spark will be facilitated. The gas thus caused to burn at the lower part will ignite by its contact the gas conducted within the chimney 72 through the tube 59, and this burning gas will then effect the lighting of the burners by its proximity thereto.

.1116 periphery of the dial 76 is provided with notches each representing a quarter of an hour, and in said notches are caused to engage at the desired time the bent portions 80, 81 of the spring plates 82, 83 which are movable around the shaft of the dial and carry respectively the pointers or projections 78, 79 (Figs. 14 and 15).

\Vhen it is desired to adjust at the required time the pointers 78, 79, the spring plates 80, 81 are raised by means of the heads 84 whereby the bent portions 80, 81 are released from said notches wherein they were engaged, and said plates are pivoted about to place the pointers in the desired position. It is to be remarked that the nut 85 employed to secure the dial 76 upon the shaft of the clockwork 1 is screwed in the direction of rotation of said dial in order to facilitate the operation of the clockwork when said dial is set at the exact time as above indicated.

Upon the upper plate of the apparatus is disposed a fixed projecting member 86 (Figs. 16 and 17) having therein a slot 87 inclined in the sense of the notches formed on the circumference of the dial 76. Upon the member 86 is pivotally mounted at 87- an arm 88 provided at the lower end thereof with a bent portion 89 adapted to engage both in the slot 87 and in one of the notches of the dial 76, whereby the nut 85 may be screwed up without any injurious effect upon the dial. When the dial is set at the required time, the bent portion 89 is disengaged from the notch of the dial Fig. 1) and the clockwork is now released.

The entire device as hereinbefore described is inclosed in acasing formed in two parts 90 having disposed in the front part an aperture 91 whereby the clockwork and 1 5 the actuating barrel may be wound up by means of the square portions 3 and 4. In this manner the ferro-cerium lighting device is entirely protected from air and the proper working of the same is insured. L0 WVhen the pressure of the gas is low, the lighting flame will not rise to a sufficient height in the chimney 72 to ignite the gas issuing from the burner. In this case the ignition device disposed in series may be employed; as shown in Fig. 18. The spark produced by the rotation of the milled wheel 42 will thus ignite the gas contained in the tube 59 and in the small tube 92 provided with a lower air inlet serving as an extension thereof, and this lighted gas will in its turn ignite the gas issuing from the top of a small tube 93 leading from the tube 59 and rising into'the gas lamp in proximity to the burners. As indicated in Fig. 9, the whole is inclosed in a tub or chimney 72 to prevent the lighting flame from being extinguished by the air. To carry out the lighting of the burners, the shaft 45 of the milled wheel 42 may also be extended into the gas lamp, and in this case the said wheel and the ferro-cerium piece are disposed within the lamp, in which event the lighting will be effected directly'by the tube 93.

Operation-In Fig. 2 the various parts of the apparatus are shown in the position which they occupy after the operation of total extinguishing has taken place, that is, all the valves are closed, inasmuch as the actuating levers thereof are not engaged with the projections 52 and the studs 53. The end of the lever 27 is engaged in the notch 2601 the disk 23 and the spring 41 of the milled lighting wheel has already been partially wound up by the two preceding operations of extinguishing the temporary burner and the total extinguishing.

Lighting-The pointer 78 of the dial which corresponds to 6 p. m. for instance, has just raised the lever 38 which actuates in turn the lever 37 whose bent portion 32 drives back the pin 31, thus effecting the pivoting movement of the lever 27 whose bent portion is thereby disengaged from the notch 26 of the disk 23. The pin 31 is now opposite the notches 34 of the flywheel 10., whereupon the barrel 2 is set in movement androtates all the intermediate gear wheels; the pin 35 determines the position of 'the bent lever 32 up to the point Where the end of the lever 27 comes upon a full portion of the disk 23. At this instant, the lever 32 returns to its inoperative position under the action of the return spring 36, and the barrel 2 is then caused to rotate until the end of the lever 27 engages the notch 24 of the disk 23.

During the rotation of the barrel 2, one of the studs 53 has now acted upon the lever 67 and one of the projections 52 has actuated the levers 65 and 66, thereby opening the three gas admission valves, to wit, to the permanent burner, the temporary burner and to the lighting tube, at the same time that meet the sectors 39 has completely wound up the spring 41'. When the stop piece 40 has released the stud as, the milled wheel 42 effects a rapid rotation in the backward direction and produces the spark for lighting the burners. As soon as this latter operation has been completed, the lever 65 is no longer engaged with the projection 52, the lighting valve closes, the barrel 2 comes to a stop when the end of the lever 27 is engaged in the notch 24, inasmuch as the pin 31 has now stopped the rotation of the flywheel 10.

Tempora-m burner eaatc'nguishecl.lvhen the pointer 77 of the dial has actuated the lever 38, at midnight, for instance, the barrel 2 is again released as above indicated and the gearing will operate until the end of the lever 27' engages the notch 25 of the disk 23. During this rotation of the barrel the lever 66 is disengaged from the projection 52, whereupon the gas inlet to the temporary burner is closed and this burner is accordingly extinguished. The permanent burner is now the only one supplied with gas, inasmuch as the lever 67 thereof is always in contact with one of the studs 53.

All burners ewtz'nguishecl.-When the pointer 7 9 raises the lever 38, at 6 a. m. for instance, the bent portion of the lever 37 effects the release of the barrel 2 as already set forth, and said barrel rotates until the end of the lever 27 engagesthe notch 26. Duringthis rotation of the barrel 2the stud has become disengaged from the lever 67 and the admission gas valve of the permanent burner is closed. The operating parts will remain in this position until the pointer 7 8 raises the lever 38, thus disen gaging the barrel 2 for the purpose of lighting the permanent and the temporary burners. i

The herein described lighting and extinguishing device is also applicable to electric fittings, for instance for the lighting and extinguishing of arc lamps. In this case a rotating electric contactdevice is actuated by the apparatus and is substituted for the said milled lighting wheel.

Having now particularly.described and ascertained the nature of my said invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is 1. An automatic lighting and extinguishing apparatus comprising a clockwork movement actuating'a graduated dial provided with peripheral notches and carrying a fixed pointer and two adjustable pointers, one of said adjustable pointers efliectingthe release of an actuating barrel for gas admission and for lighting the permanent and the temporary burners, the second adjustable pointer controlling said actuating barrel for the purpose of extinguishing the permanent burner, the said fixed pointer beingused to effect the release of said actuating barrel to prolduce a partial extinguishing during the rug t.

2. An automatic lighting and extinguishing apparatus comprising an actuating barrel, means for the release of said actuating barrel, the release being carried outby means of pointers carried by the dial and acting in turn upon a pivoted arm controlling a'bent member the pivotal shaft whereof is provided with a hooked lever for impelling a pin which is secured to a swingin lever, said pin being used to arrest the flywheel of said actuating barrel, a projecting portion formed atrthe otherend ofsaid swinging lever becoming released from notches provided upon a disk which is connected by a gear wheel to said actuating barrel.

3. An automatic lighting and extinguishing apparatus comprising a fly wheel with solid portions thereof adapted to engage a stop pin carried by a swinging lever, said flywheel also containing cut out portions permitting the free rotation thereof when said stop pin has been displaced by the release of the actuating barrel.

4. An automatic lighting and extinguishing apparatus comprising an actuating barrel the casing whereof is provided with toothed sectors adapted to engage a pinion disposed on the shaft of the gas lighting abrasive wheel, for the purpose of winding up a spiral spring, said toothed sectors be ing in such case followed by a raised projection which maintains said spring wound up until the pinion of said abrasive wheel shall have been entirely disengaged from said sector actuating the same, said abrasive wheel thereupon returning by a rapid movement to the inoperative position, thus producing the ignition spark by friction upon a fero-cerium piece, the return stroke being limited by a heart-shaped piece cooperating with a stationary pin.

5. In an automatic lighting and extinguishing apparatus, an actuating barrel the casing whereof is provided with bosses for actuating two swinging levers which open the gas admission valves to the lighting tube and the temporary burner, said actuating barrel being also provided with pins acting upon another pivoted lever employed for opening the gas admission valve to the permanent burner, these three pivoted levers being spring-controlled for closing the valves when said bosses and pins no longer act upon the swinging levers.

6. An automatic lighting and extinguishing apparatus comprising a valve box wherein the three valve seats are closed by a rubber band surrounding said box and held in place by means of a plate whose fixing screws are situated without the edges of said rubber band, said rubberdiaphragm being applied upon the valve seats by means of balls or like members secured to levers actuated by said bosses and pins disposed upon the casing of the actuating barrel.

7. In an automatic lighting and extinguishing apparatus, a lighting device for the permanent and the temporary burner, comprising a chimney open at both ends and having entering therein a gas-lighting tube provided with an additional offtake orifice opening into an inclosing tube which is open at the base thereof, this latter tube having an orifice disposed opposite said gas lighting abrasive wheel, whereas the upper chimney which becomes filled with the gas from said lighting tube is caused to open adjacent the gas mantles of the burners.

8. In combination with an automatic lighting and extinguishing apparatus, a device for lighting the gas in series, comprising means for igniting the gas in one tube and in a second tube constituting the extension thereof, and means for producing in turn by the same ignited gas the ignition of the gas issuing from a small tube opening into the gas lamp.

9. In an automatic lighting and extinguishing apparatus, a ferro-cerium piece mounted in a split sleeve constituting a clamp which is secured to a piston having secured thereto one end of the thrust spring, the other end of said spring being attached to the pressure screw, in such manner that said screw, spring and ferro-cerium holder may be removed in a single piece.

10. In an automatic llghting and extinguishing apparatus, a device whereby the graduated dial may be readily set to the required time, comprising a lever provided with a stud adapted to engage at the same time in a notch of the dial and in an inclined notch provided upon a fixed arm having pivoted thereto the said lever provided with the stud.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention, I have signed my name.

VICTOR FORTI. 

